


A Daughter of Liberty

by within_a_dream



Series: The Follies of Love [2]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Kid Fic, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 20:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3543257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/within_a_dream/pseuds/within_a_dream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cosette is ecstatic when she discovers she's pregnant, but when the baby is born, some minor complications reveal themselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Daughter of Liberty

Cosette waited two weeks to tell Marius and Éponine she thought she was pregnant. She’d meant to wait longer, until she was certain, but she found it was far too difficult to keep such a joyous secret from those she loved.

Marius was even more thrilled than Cosette about the pregnancy. At least once a week, she caught him looking at her belly and grinning, and within a month or so, he’d stopped blushing when she caught him staring. It was more difficult to tell with Éponine—she’d always held her emotions close to her chest, and Cosette couldn’t tell if she was imagining things or if Éponine seemed more skittish than usual. She’d been spending more time in her own room of late, a bedroom which had formerly been a nod to propriety and not much more.

Cosette made sure she was gentle when she asked Éponine to join her and Marius in the parlor one night to discuss naming the baby. If there had been any doubt about what was causing Éponine’s worry, the surprise on her face at Cosette’s question erased it.

“Are you certain you want me there?”

Cosette took her hand. “You’re a part of our family. Of _course_ we want you there!”

Éponine didn’t add any names to the discussion, although in all fairness, neither did Marius, at first.

“I’ve always been fond of Estelle, or Sophie, for a girl.”

After a long and questioning silence, Éponine said, “Sophie is a pretty name.”

“And if it’s a boy?”

That was when Marius chimed in. “Georges, after my father.” He tempered his confidence with a hesitant, “If that’s all right with you?”

“Of course. It’s a wonderful name.”

Éponine joined them in bed that night, falling asleep curled around Cosette. It was lovely to have things back to some semblance of normality (although if anyone had told Cosette before she’d married what her definition of normal would be a year from then, she wouldn’t have believed them).

Their daughter, Sophie, was born in the spring, a solemn child with piercing eyes and a full head of blonde hair.

“She certainly doesn’t take after her father,” Marius laughed the first time he held her. Cosette looked at the baby in his arms, then back up at Marius, thoughts forming that she wasn’t sure she wanted to deal with.

“When was our night with Enjolras?”

His smile faded a bit. “Oh. It was last summer, wasn’t it?”

“Well,” she said as Marius handed Sophie back to her. “We certainly have a lot to discuss.”

They didn’t talk about it. It wasn’t an intentional avoidance, at least on Cosette’s part—there was just so much happening that she barely had time to breathe, much less talk to her husband about the fact that he was quite possibly not the father of her child.

Marius took to parenthood like a duck to water, spending more time with Sophie than Cosette did. She often caught the two of them together, Marius with Sophie in his arms and holding a very serious-sounding conversation with her, nodding in response to all of her gurgles and replying with nonsense words in a tone so solemn that if Cosette didn’t know better, she’d swear that he and Sophie were having some sort of deep philosophical debate about the meaning of life. Other days he preferred to laugh with her, tickling her until she squealed or blowing raspberries into her stomach. He seemed more at ease with his daughter in his arms than nearly anywhere else.

Éponine was more hesitant. As much as Cosette wanted to reassure her that of course she was still welcome (and that if she’d like to, she could be as much a parent to Sophie as Cosette and Marius), she knew it would do no good. Éponine could be reticent, especially when she feared she was imposing. No, she’d have to try a different tactic.

“I’d thought I could play a bit today,” Cosette said after breakfast one morning. “Would you mind watching Sophie for me?”

“You can put her down, you know. She has a lovely bedroom with a perfectly suitable cradle.” But Éponine smiled, faint but happy, as she took Sophie.

“She’s been so fussy lately. The second I put her down, she starts bawling.”

Éponine sat down in the parlor, grinning at Sophie when she thought Cosette wasn’t looking, and Cosette launched into a fugue. Éponine would never admit it, but she loved listening to Cosette play. Her favorite pieces, Cosette had found, were fast and furious and loud. She’d worried that her playing might upset the baby, but from the hurried glances Cosette was able to steal, Sophie seemed to be quite happy. Éponine was even happier, whispering to Sophie and laughing when the child grabbed at her hair.

When she hit the final chord, Éponine softly clapped one hand against her leg, the other still cradling Sophie. “That was lovely.”

“She’s fond of you,” Cosette said. “This is the calmest she’s been in days.”

“Is that so?” A rare full-fledged grin had spread across her face.

“You’ll have to spend more time with her. Only if you’re willing, of course, but it’s so wonderful to see her happy.”

Her father, who came to visit the day after Sophie was born and continued to stop by regularly, was enraptured with his granddaughter. He doted on her, bringing so many dresses and toys that Cosette feared they would have to dedicate an entire room just to holding them.

The first time he held her, he cried. “What a lovely girl,” he whispered, cradling her as if he were worried she would shatter in his hands. “And such hair! She looks like your mother, Cosette.”

“Does she?” Cosette found herself crying as well, remembering a time long ago when her papa had come to take her away, and a time longer yet when a beautiful woman with golden hair had sung to her, voice soft and sweet.

Sophie began to grasp at Valjean’s beard, distracting them both from their reverie.

“She’s a lovely girl,” he said again. “If you should ever find yourself wanting a break, I would be happy to watch her.”

“I won’t hesitate to ask.”

As he left, Cosette longed to ask him what to do with this daughter who belonged in part to a man who more than likely wanted to forget everything about the night that had resulted in her conception. Would he even want to know? What would it mean for Marius, to be Sophie’s papa but not her father? How could Cosette make Éponine understand that she was just as much a part of the family as the baby? She loved Marius, and Marius loved her, and somehow things had still become so _complicated_.

Cosette could never tell her papa what she’d been up to, of course (even the thought made her shudder), but oh, how she longed to. He’d raised her by himself, after all, surely he’d have some idea of how to handle a rather nonstandard situation of parenthood.

In the end, she called Marius and Éponine together that week, leaving Sophie in Valjean’s care for the night.

“He doesn’t have to know,” Marius said, toying with his cravat in a manner that Cosette could all too readily identify as a sign of nerves. “You don’t think he’ll notice, do you?”

“Enjolras?” Éponine snorted. “I doubt it.”

“Would he want to know?”

Marius’s only response to Cosette’s question was a pained expression.

“You’d have more insight than me; I wasn’t the one who slept with him.” Éponine paused. “She’s not my child, so of course you don’t need to take my opinion into account, but I think you ought to tell him.” She’d focused her gaze firmly on the ground. “He should know, that he’s a father.”

“I thought that too.” Cosette ignored Marius’s whimper of despair. “Don’t you think we should offer him the choice of being part of his daughter’s life, Marius?”

“Just please don’t make me talk to him alone.”

“Don’t be a coward.” Éponine punched him in the arm, and he winced. “He’s not that fearsome, is he?”

“I’ll come with you, of course.” Cosette took Marius’s hand. “There’s a meeting tomorrow night, isn’t there? I could bring Sophie with me to pick you up, and we can catch him after the others leave.”

“If you’re certain we need to.”

She laid a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll be there with you the whole time. You don’t even have to talk if you don’t want.” Marius smiled and squeezed her hand tighter, and Cosette felt a little better about pressuring him into this.

The next night, Marius seemed to have forgotten about his previous resolve. Cosette had to forcibly stop him from running to the carriage, although to his credit, once she nudged him back inside he was quick to flag Enjolras down.

“My husband and I have something we’d like to tell you,” Cosette said when it became clear that Marius had used his last store of courage not fleeing for home. “You’ve met Sophie, I believe?”

“I have.” Enjolras looked at the child, confused.

“We think she’s yours,” Marius blurted out.

“Of course, you don’t have to take any claim to her if you don’t want, but we thought you’d like to know.”

“My daughter?” His expression was impossible to read. Cosette waited, leaning closer to Marius in the hopes that it would stop his nervous fidgeting. Then Enjolras laughed nervously, and asked, “May I hold her?”

He took her hesitantly, smiling as Cosette guided his arms to support her head. “Hello, darling,” he whispered, a grin spreading across his face. “You’re a beautiful girl, aren’t you?”

“You’re welcome to spend more time with her, if you’d like.”

“Only if you’re sure you don’t mind. She is your child, after all.” He looked more nervous than Cosette would have suspected it possible for him to be. “I don’t want to impose.”

“We wouldn’t have told you if we weren’t all right with sharing her. Isn’t that right, Marius?”

At Cosette’s nudge, Marius nodded.

“My daughter,” Enjolras murmured again, looking at Sophie in awe. Then he shook his head, holding her out to Cosette. “I’ll give her back, then. Let me know if you ever need someone to watch her, I’d be more than happy…”

“We will.”

Éponine was waiting for them in the parlor when they returned. “How did it go?”

“He reacted well, wouldn’t you say, Marius?”

Marius nodded in response to Cosette, and then, unexpectedly, spoke. “He was so proud of her, Éponine. You should have seen the way his eyes lit up the first time he said _daughter_. “

“You plan to share custody with a man you spent one awkward night with nine months ago?”

“He’ll be an uncle, if anyone asks.” Despite Éponine’s snappish words, Cosette could tell by her smile that she felt just as happy as Cosette and Marius. “Uncle Enjolras and Auntie Éponine; what better role models could a child require?”

“I could think of a few.” Éponine reached out to let Sophie grasp at her finger, and her smile grew wider. “What would the world say if they knew what a scandalous life you were living, Cosette?”

“To be frank, I couldn’t care less.” Cosette kissed her.

“I could!” Marius squeaked, and Cosette kissed him as well.

“Don’t worry, love, I don’t plan on telling anyone. Besides, it seems to me that most of your friends already know.”

“Don’t remind me,” he muttered.

“You shouldn’t worry so much.” Éponine wrapped her arms around him from behind. “As far as I can tell, you’re the luckiest man in the world.”

Marius leaned into her embrace, leaning his head back against her. “Isn’t it about time to put the baby to bed?”

Cosette laughed and took Sophie up to the nursery, her lovers trailing behind her. Once the baby was asleep, they retreated to their own bedroom. They had to keep quiet so as not to wake Sophie, but that wasn’t too much of a struggle (and Éponine was always ready to help Marius out if he showed signs of growing too loud).

As she fell asleep that night, Éponine pressed against her back and Marius’s legs entwined with hers, Cosette didn’t think it was possible to be happier.

**Author's Note:**

> This somehow managed to get even crackier than the first fic in the series. I hope you all will still enjoy it!


End file.
